Sphinx docstrings formatting software

In python docstrings it will be necessary to escape any backslash characters so that they actually. Windows 10 there is currently very little support for python docstrings, at least using the rest format that we use in our project. Because good python code is quite clear on its own, keep docstrings informative but simple. Filename, size file type python version upload date hashes. This format is based on the original numpydoc style guide used by numpy, scipy, and astropy, among other scientific python packages, though this style guide includes several dmspecific clarifications. A tag that means this is a python something, guess what. Although originally designed for aiding in documentation of python software, it is now being used for documentation of packages in other languages as well.

All standard restructuredtext formatting still works as expected. An api reference is typically generated from the code see docstrings. Nobody sphinx has the notion of a version and a release for the software. Restructured text rest and sphinx cheatsheet sphinx and. Paragraph level markup read the docs sphinx theme 0. This example shows how to document your docstrings and how to interpret it within your rst document. Lets see the main available syntax formats for the python docstrings. Prevents undesired programs and windows updates, informational incoming and outgoing leakage of applications running locally or remotely. For example, for python the version is something like 2. The stubs contain automodule directives which in turn inform sphinxbuild to invoke autodoc to do the heavy lifting of actually generating the api documentation from the docstrings of a particular module. The docstrings are formatted in a specific way so that sphinx can. Docstrings napoleon interprets every docstring that sphinx autodoc can find, including docstrings on. Docstrings in source code should not use sphinx directives, using only light rest formatting for readability. These should be primarily for project devs and anyone digging into the source code.

Sphinx is far and away the most popular python documentation tool. Darglint can handle sphinxstyle docstrings, but imposes some restrictions on top of the sphinx style. Comments need to be either on a line of their own before the definition, or immediately after the assignment on the same line. However, sphinx still aims to give you control not found when using real auto tools like doxygen or epydoc. For example the last three lines will be joined in a single paragraph for the docstring in msg319848. This tool was created to support handwritten documentation files in the restructuredtext. Python documentation strings or docstrings provide a convenient way of associating documentation with python modules, functions, classes, and. Documentation style guide style guide for sphinxbased. Designed to replace epydoc and works on both python 2 and 3. Splitting documentation between docstrings and sphinx.

Along with docstrings, python also has the builtin function help that prints out the objects docstring to the console. Therefore, that is why you need the small stub file code. This tool was created to support handwritten documentation. Documentation is done with sphinx and some helper functions coming with the software for more customization. You can then use all of the usual sphinx markup in the docstrings, and it will end up correctly in the documentation.

If no line matches, the resulting docstring would be empty, so no change will be made unless keepempty is true. You can get some information about the main formats in this blog post. These are builtin strings that, when configured correctly, can help your users and yourself with your projects documentation. Sphinx and the rst syntax provides directives to include formatted text. Note that it is best to write the docstrings once you have fully defined the functionclass, as then the extension will generate the full dosctring. If you want the extension to generate docstrings in sphinx format, you must set the autodocstring. In the right sidebar, you should find a link show source, which shows the rst source code. They must be together, and all indents should be four spaces. Unlike conventional source code comments, the docstring should describe what the function. This really should have a full function definition, but i am too lazy.

So readers using such programs actually lose some content. In some cases, docstrings can include formatting instructions, for example, to bold text or set heading level. For example, docstrings could be extracted to create a map of the code structure or identify code blocks assigned to a test suite. Sections are created with a section header and a colon followed by a block of indented text. An objects docsting is defined by including a string constant as the first statement in the objects definition. It uses the rest syntax, that is quite simple to learn and has the advantagse to be human readable useful for the docstrings. However the default sphinx docstring format was not mentioned and is based on restructuredtext rest. Documentation style guidelines apache software foundation. The sympy websites primary function is to advertise the software to users. Add a glossary rst sphinx sublime github documentation. You can see the literal source for this file at this file. Using sphinx autodoc, is there a way to format a first line of a multiline docstring in a special way consider. When plaintext hasnt been expressive enough for inline documentation, python programmers have sought out a format for docstrings. Restructured text rest and sphinx cheatsheet sphinx.

This happens in an intermediate step while sphinx is. Python project documentation using sphinx codeproject. The most common use of docstrings appears to be providing help and useful meta data. Python docstrings should always appear on the line underneath the symbol they are attached to. Sphinx and its python support, as well as rest markup, have various quirks that demand discipline. Let us consider a python module called template see bottom of the page. Sphinx has the notion of a version and a release for the software. Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful documentation, written by georg brandl and licensed under the bsd license. Inside each docstring, specially formatted sections are parsed and converted to restructuredtext. Python docstring is the documentation string which is string literal, and it occurs in the class, module, function or method definition, and it is written as a first statement. Include other rst files with the toctree directive. Using sphinx for python documentation shuns vineyard.

Writing docstrings sphinxrtdtutorial documentation. The idea behind the auto directives is to keep as much documentation in the code docstrings as possible. Together with handwritten documentation, this technique eases the pain of having to maintain two locations for documentation, while at the same time avoiding auto. An idiots guide to python documentation with sphinx and. Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful. Napoleon marching toward legible docstrings napoleon 0. With sphinx, you can autodocument this module by including the following code within a rst document. The folder that contains all the documentation is called docs. Using sphinx to generate reference guide is not as straightforward as using a tool such as epydoc but brings a much more flexible and powerful tool that allows us to create user guide and tutorials as well. The general format for writing a multiline docstring is as follows. It was originally created for the python documentation, and it has excellent facilities for the documentation of software projects in a range of languages.

In programming, a docstring is a string literal specified in source code that is used, like a comment, to document a specific segment of code. First, write doc strings in all key classes, methods, and functions using the formatting options defined by sphinx and second is configuring and using sphinx for document generation. Its specified in source code that is used, like a comment, to document a specific segment of code. To add a text with a hyperlink, i like using this format.

Documenting your project using sphinx python hosted. Together with handwritten documentation, this technique eases the pain of having to maintain two locations for documentation, while at the same time avoiding autogeneratedlooking pure api documentation. Python documentation strings or docstrings provide a convenient way of associating documentation with python modules, functions, classes, and methods. Python documentation strings or docstrings provide a convenient way of associating documentation with. The current standard tool for documenting python software is sphinx. If sphinx complains about docstrings in the stlib, dont run sphinx for the stdlib files or report a sphinx bug. Sphinx converts restructuredtext files into html websites and other formats including pdf, epub, texinfo and man. Documenting your python code is all centered on docstrings. For creating the inheritance diagrams the graphviz package is needed. False to disable support for numpy style docstrings.

Provides detailed logging and notification of any application network activity. See sphinxexamples for a list of other projects that use sphinx. Python docstrings can be written following several formats as the other posts showed. Docstrings will be indented once off the symbol they are attached to. Docstrings are accessible from the doc attribute for any of the python object and also with the builtin help function can come in handy. This happens in an intermediate step while sphinx is processing the documentation, so it doesnt modify any of the docstrings in your actual source code.

This covers just a few of the many many commands available via sphinx. Unlike conventional source code comments, or even specifically formatted comments like javadoc documentation, docstrings are not stripped from the source tree when it is parsed and are retained throughout the runtime of the program. Ive found that out of the box, i just get a screenful of importerrors from autodoc. Its specified in source code that is used, like a comment, to document a. If you run sphinx, it will create the basic scaffold for the documentation of your project. In the sentence the pop3 class, we need to markup pop3 so. We organize python docstrings into sections that appear in a common order. This pep proposes that the restructuredtext markup be adopted as a standard markup format for structured plaintext documentation in python docstrings, and for peps and ancillary documents as well. At first, you will be seeing the sphinx style in detail, and then you can easily follow along with other. This entire document is written with the rst syntax.